CHAPTER 59: LEGACY OF LIFE AND DEATH

Bok Taejin tentatively asked, "Ancestor?"

"At least you’re not completely brainless." The voice from within the light point was filled with relief. "But I’m merely a thought projection of your Ancestor that was left behind to teach a foolish brat like you. So calling me Ancestor isn’t wrong."

"I originally thought I’d have to slumber for at least half a year before you, you idiot, finally woke me up. Didn’t expect you to have a bit of luck and wake me earlier than that."

Although it felt somewhat wrong to speak out, Bok Taejin couldn’t help but protest, "Ancestor, I’m not stupid."

That voice gave a couple of cold chuckles. "Not stupid? Then why did you only think about tap water pipelines and never once consider spirit seeds?"

Bok Taejin was stunned.

Could it be that this light point lived within his brow, tightly connected to his sea of consciousness, able to know his thoughts and even read his memories?

The light point continued, "As long as you cultivate properly and gain higher access to the spirit seed storage chamber, why wouldn’t you be able to use spirit seeds to change your life? Even if the current spirit seeds aren’t suitable, in the future, you can cultivate the ones you need yourself!"

After saying that, the light paused and then explained, "Don’t let your imagination run wild. I can’t perceive your every thought. I’m here to teach you, not because I’m so bored I’d go snooping into what a junior like you is thinking. It’s only because you brought those thoughts close to me that I was able to pick up on them."

Bok Taejin froze for a moment, then recalled how he had, without realizing it, developed a habit of turning to the light point whenever he had a question.

He had just been thinking about tap water and instinctively brought the idea near it—so even though he hadn’t actually meant to ask, the thought ended up drawing a response from the thought-projection of his Ancestor.

"Ancestor, you were sleeping earlier? Then your awakening was...?"

"Wasn’t it because you, idiot, almost died! You’re my only inheritor in this world, and the one most suited to practice the Life and Death Technique. If you died, what would I do?"

The light point grumbled, "If you hadn’t been lucky, if that Windy chubby beast hadn’t provided you with death energy, and if the radish patch wasn’t slightly more saturated with life energy, I wouldn’t have been able to save you!"

"The role of a one-star radish in gathering life energy—is it just to enrich the surrounding area?" Bok Taejin caught onto the key point. "From what you’re saying, the radish patch’s life energy should’ve already intensified. But why didn’t I notice any change?"

"Who said nothing changed? You’re just too weak to perceive the flow of life and death energies in the surroundings! Or did you think that Windy chubby beast showed up by coincidence?"

"They survive by eating bones and accumulate a lot of death energy within. Their lifespan isn’t long. But precisely because of that, they’re far more sensitive to life energy than other creatures. The moment the radishes sprouted, it probably already sensed it."

"Back then, your Master drove it into the Jade Blossom Mountain Range and used The Seal of Life and Death to alter some of its habits so it could coexist with the vine predator. It was attracted by the radishes, and the vine followed after."

Bok Taejin felt as if thunder had struck him.

What the light point had just revealed wasn’t too far off from what he had suspected.

But one point was particularly important.

He paused for a moment before asking, "The Seal of Life and Death can alter an animal’s behavior? Then what about those fierce beasts and monsters suppressed within the Jade Blossom Mountain Range? Are they also connected to the One Flower Sect?"

Perhaps only the One Flower Sect possessed such spirit seeds; perhaps that explained the strange creatures in the Jade Blossom Mountain Range.

Even the aura leaking from those creatures was enough to trigger mutations in ordinary lifeforms...

"Correct," the light answered proudly. "The Seal of Life and Death can alter them. But unfortunately, it has a major flaw. Only someone who cultivates the Life and Death Technique can maximize its effects."

Its tone turned regretful: "After I ascended to the Immortal Realm, no one has been able to successfully cultivate the Life and Death Technique. No matter how talented, they could at best reach the third level before dying from internal rupture."

"Later disciples no longer forced themselves to cultivate the scripture, and their strength began to fall behind other sects. Eventually, this led to the One Flower Sect’s decline in this world. In the end, we couldn’t even firmly suppress the things I created in the past."

Bok Taejin’s body trembled slightly. "The abnormalities in the Jade Blossom Mountain Range... you caused them? Do you even understand the potential impact of those things on this world?!"

Like the vine predator, which was merely a newly mutated species influenced by the aura of a Vine King.

But in Bok Taejin’s memory, there were other plants and animals in the Jade Blossom Mountain Range that were extremely destructive to the environment!

Like those that absorb all the water in one area, leaving nearby lands dry and barren, just to produce a single fruit that could boost a cultivator’s strength—the Flame Mera Fruit.

Or like those that coexist with poisonous dragons, turning an entire region into a toxic wasteland, where the soil and all vegetation were contaminated—the Origin Tree of Venom Doku.

These were exactly the types of aberrant creatures the One Flower Sect had locked away in the Jade Blossom Mountain Range!

Bok Taejin had once thought the One Flower Sect was noble, risking their own safety for the world’s peace, willingly standing guard over the Jade Blossom Mountain Range. And with their overwhelming power, they kept those abnormal creatures from harming anyone bearing the One Flower Token.